Israeli police prevented what could have been a serious terror attack when they caught an Arab man from the Palestinian Authority with an M-16 assault rifle Tuesday evening. as he was traveling in a car.

The man, a resident of the Palestinian Authority-controlled city of Jericho, was traveling in a car when he was stopped by Israeli police on the strength of an intelligence alert.

Along with the assault rifle, police discovered during their search a quantity of ammunition and accessories for the weapon, including a special grip and a sniper’s scope.

A group of Jewish tourists, including children, visiting the coastal Old City of Acre last Monday afternoon, was assaulted by local Arabs who tried to push them off the very high ancient wall of the city on which they were strolling. In response to the assault one of the tourists in the group, an IDF soldier, was forced to draw his personal weapon to defend the group.

After the incident, the soldier was detained by police for investigation and his army issue personal weapon was confiscated. He is being represented by legal aid society Honenu Attorney Adi Kedar.

“We were strolling along the walls of the Old City, about 20 people, including many children, when suddenly, for no reason, an Arab youth approached us and threatened to push us off of the wall, an enormous height of 12 meters (36 ft),” the soldier reported. “After a few minutes, several more young men and teens joined the first youth. One of them started to push members of the group off the wall, seriously threatening their lives. I and other members of the group, in order not to fall from the high side to the sea and the boulders below, were forced to jump from the wall to the ground [on the safe side].”

The soldier said he was forced to draw his personal weapon in order to deter the assailants and to protect the group.

The tourist group filed a complaint at the police station against the Arab assailants.

Attorney Kedar said in a statement: “This is a scandal. A group of tourists was assaulted, a soldier was forced to protect his life and the lives of those around him, and found himself under investigation. It is unfortunate that once again the police took a stand at an early stage and detained suspects before clarifying the details of the incident. I am certain that my client will be released shortly. I hope that whomever started the disturbance and made the threats will be detained and brought to justice.”

Update: on Wednesday afternoon, Acre police returned the confiscated weapon to the soldier. Attorney Kedar praised police for their move, but called on them to arrest the Arabs who assaulted the tourists.

A collaborative effort of the Shabak, IDF special forces unit Duvdevan and Israel Samaria police on Sunday night captured a cell of manufacturers and dealers of improvised weapons in Oreef Village near Shechem. The operation netted various types of improvised weapons, and four Lathes that were used to make the weapons.

The home-made weapons made in the Oreef facility were being sold in other parts of Judea and Samaria, and included Carlo (a simplified version of the Swedish Carl Gustav submachine-gun), the originally US-made M-16 rifles, and Uzis.

Four Lathes were captured

Security forces believe the four cell members, ages 24 to 46, collaborated with Israeli weapons dealers. Two of the arrested cell members, Assam Najam Sharif Safadi, 39, and Ali Najah Sharif Safadi, 41, are also members of the Palestinian Authority Intelligence Services.

Al Monitor columnist Shlomi Eldar cited a PA Arab source who told him, “You don’t need a lot of imagination, professional skill or resources to manufacture the Carlo. All you need is a piece of pipe. With a lathe, you can convert it into the barrel, chamber and firing pin of a rifle.”

Home-made handgun

There are two prototypes of the Carlo, one with a short barrel, the other with a long barrel, selling for between $770 and $4,400, depending on the reputation of the gun maker. Eldar cited another Arab source who told him that “a few hundred of these rifles are making the rounds in the territories,” and “can be found in quite a few homes, mainly for self-defense, but also just to boost people’s egos. In our society, if you don’t have a gun, you don’t count, and that’s especially true in the refugee camps. Even an old, unreliable Carlo is better than nothing.”

Here’s the Israeli Navy boat INS Hanit arriving in Eilat on Saturday, March 8, 2014, after capturing the Klos C, which was carrying dozens of advanced Iranian-supplied weapons made in Syria and intended for Palestinian guerrillas in the Gaza Strip.

A senior Israeli government official has told Kol Israel this morning that he doubts the Obama Administration’s commitment to prevent Iran “at any cost” from attainting a nuclear weapon.

The official explained that the Administration’s behavior in Syria, in complete contradiction of President Obama’s declarations, shows Israel that it cannot rely on American promises.

The senior official added that Israel could execute a strike against Iran without American operational support, but such an attack would be less effective than an American operation.

Israel is extremely concerned that the U.S. might be seeking direct negotiations between Washington and Tehran, leading to easing the sanctions against Iran in return for Iranian concessions that would fall short of Israel’s demands.

It’s likely that the high level official’s statement is an expression of the Netanyahu government’s anxiety over the glee with which the Obama Administration has welcomed the election of a new Iranian president. A White House statement following the inauguration of President Hasan Rouhani Sunday read:

“We congratulate the Iranian people for making their voices heard during the election. We note that President Rouhani recognized that his election represented a call by the Iranian people for change, and we hope that the new Iranian Government will heed the will of the voters by making choices that will lead to a better life for the Iranian people. We do believe that his inauguration presents an opportunity for Iran to act quickly to resolve the international community’s deep concerns over Iran’s nuclear program. And, as we’ve said all along, should the new government choose to engage substantively and seriously to meet its international obligations, we are ready to talk to them when they are ready to do so.”

Direct talks, as suggested by the White House statement, always begin with “confidence building measures,” and the Netanyahu government must be worried that it would be picking up the tab on the new couple’s honeymoon.

In the State Dept. daily press briefing yesterday, Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf was asked: “The Israeli Government said over the weekend it does not trust Rouhani because of statements which they say indicate, again, an existential threat to Israel’s existence. Is the U.S. taking that concern under consideration when it looks at how it might want to engage with Rouhani?”

Harf answered that the U.S. will take “the whole range of security concerns, the security problems Iran has presented for the region into account,” when it decides how to deal with the new Iranian Government. She reiterated that it’s important “to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon because of the threat they could pose to Israel, to the region, and indeed to us as well.” But, finally, hope sprang eternal, and Harf acknowledged that the U.S. is “waiting to talk to them when they are ready to engage substantively.” Meaning – one on one.

Harf was next asked “What’s the first step that you would want to see Rouhani take on the nuclear issue?”

“We have a proposal on the table,” she said. “We’ve had it on the table for some time and we’re waiting for a substantive response from the Iranian side on how to move forward. And we’ve been clear that that’s what needs to happen next.”

All of which suggests that the Supreme Leader Sayyed Ali Khamenei has played a brilliant game in picking his new “moderate” president.

Khamenei made Rouhani chief of Iran’s nuclear negotiations in 2003, for the same reason he made him president this time around – the man can talk a candy out of the western babies’ hands. Rouhani ran the negotiations between Iran and three European states in Tehran and continued later in Brussels, Geneva and Paris.

Rouhani’s team back then was described as “the best diplomats in the Iranian Foreign Ministry.” They prevented further escalation of accusations against Iran, and so prevented Iran’s nuclear case from going to the UN Security Council. They figured out how to temporarily suspend parts of Iran’s nuclear activities to appease the West.

And so, while building confidence, insisting on Iran’s rights, reducing international pressures and the possibility of war, and preventing Iran’s case from being reported to the UN Security Council, Iran succeeded in completing its nuclear fuel cycle and took groundbreaking steps to produce a nuclear weapon.